Steal a Kiss in the Dark
by NewUserNamesAreHard
Summary: Imposter-chan was... interesting. Fascinating really, but Kaito still had to wonder. Why was she impersonating Kudo Shinichi anyways?
1. Imposter

**A/N: I'm actually several hundred episodes behind in DC/MK, but when I sat down to write I couldn't get Kaito and Shinichi out of my head. I've picked up some details from other fanfics, but I may not have up to date info.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own DC/MK in case there was any question about that.**

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 **Chapter 1: Imposter**

Kaito watched as the soccer ball flew towards the goal at an alarming speed. Outwardly, having been dragged to the game against his will, he pretended to be bored out of his mind while he juggled 6 brightly colored balls. Internally however, he cringed as he saw the goalie move to intercept the soccer ball. If Kaito was being honest – and he was hardly ever honest - he felt sorry for the other teen. It would be the fourth time in the last 30 minutes the goalie had had the air knocked out of him; in two cases, literally leaving him gasping for air. "Ooof." The ball hit the teen once again, sending him flying backwards across the threshold of the goal.

The score ticked up once more. 4-0

The girl on Teitan high school's boys' soccer team was really very good. And not just at soccer. Her Kudo Shinichi disguise was almost flawless too. As a master of disguise himself, Kaito was impressed. He had noticed almost immediately that something was off, but it had still taken him a while to identify exactly what was wrong with the recently returned 'Detective of the East'.

If Kudo wasn't a detective, Kaito probably would have lost interest before he noticed the gender inconsistency. However, Kudo was in fact a detective. And if the blonde idiot sitting two seats down from Kaito was to be believed, Kudo was probably the best detective in the country. Which might cause problems for the country's favorite phantom thief, aka Kaitou KID, aka Kuroba Kaito, aka him.

It was actually a bit of a relief that Kudo was an imposter. KID normally kept a few dozen steps ahead of his police task force and the blonde idiot, but he had one critic that was always only a step or two behind. Edogawa Conan - who was by some miracle of science, actually the shrunken form of the real Kudo Shinichi - was always hot on KID's trail. A full sized Kudo might be trouble. Really, the only things that had been keeping KID safe so far were his much longer legs and an unspoken agreement that seemed to exist between the two of them. As long as KID never crossed certain lines, Kudo would let him go about his (mostly) victimless crimes.

Thinking about Conan almost brought a smile to Kaito's lips. Almost. If he weren't in the midst of pretending to be upset he would have just broken out into a face splitting grin. But as it so happened, the blonde idiot was watching him. Hakuba had no proof, but he was 99.999% certain that Kaito was in fact KID. So needless to say, he was watching Kaito's every move.

As a sharper gaze focused on Kaito he nearly dropped one of the balls he was juggling. The girl he had been watching was looking directly at him with narrowed blue eyes. She didn't look particularly pleased with him and her eyes never softened as they held each other's gaze. Kaito idly wondered how she had enough time to stare at him during the middle of the game before he realized that every player on the field had taken a knee. Six adults were all clustered around the downed goalie trying to assess his condition. It seemed after the last shot, the goalie had decided it was in his best interest not to get back up. Kaito really couldn't fault him for that. Conan had nearly taken KID out with a soccer ball on more than one occasion.

He watched warily as the girl's eyes shifted slightly, coming to rest on Hakuba. The blonde detective nodded to his fake peer. They seemed to have a silent exchange as the girl raised an eyebrow with a slight incline of her head. Hakuba glanced at Kaito before he shrugged and shook his head. The girl seemed to decide that meant Kaito was harmless because she turned away from him after that, her sharp gaze sweeping across the rest of the spectators.

Truthfully, Shinichi wasn't sure he should accept Hakuba's judgment that the wild haired teen in the stands was harmless. Hakuba was a good detective, but after spending two years on the run from a black organization, Shinichi just didn't feel all that trusting. Especially since the wild haired teen had been watching him almost the entire game.

That in in of itself wasn't all that odd. Shinichi had been the center of attention for the last few weeks. It just wasn't all that common for people to reappear after dropping off the face of the earth for two years. He had counted 13 people who hadn't taken their eyes off of him since he took the field. Being stared at really wasn't odd at all. The odd thing was that the wild haired teen was pretending not to be watching him. It took a fair amount of skill to watch someone without looking like you are watching them. That was what set Shinichi on edge. It wasn't a skill that someone picked up without needing to use it.

The sound of the referee blowing a whistle brought Shinichi's attention back to the soccer game. The goalie had been carried off the field by his coach and a new victim had taken his place. Shinichi felt a little bit bad about that. He really hadn't meant to hurt the goalie, but he still hadn't quite gotten a handle on his new body. Even if he was feeling at home in his new body – which he was decidedly not – the goalie might have suffered a similar fate. Shinichi was working out some 'issues' and kicking the soccer ball full force seemed to help for a few seconds at a time.

He had finally gotten an antidote to APTX 4869, aka that experimental poison that had taken 10 years off his age instead of killing him. Said antidote was supposed to return him to his correct age. And it had. Just like the poison itself, the antidote rewrote a portion of his body structure. It also suppressed his testosterone production.

According to Haibara, the creator of both the poison and the antidote, he was still technically him. His DNA was the same, but now he had… well… the wrong body. Not to say that waking up as a teenage girl was any worse than waking up in the body of a 7 year old. But there were certain facets of his new body that Shinichi wasn't quite comfortable with: his balance was wrong, he had to wear a disguise just to look like himself, and spending time around sweat drenched male soccer players was proving to him that pheromones were a dangerous thing. He would never let the coach talk him into 'helping out' the team ever again. Luckily it was only the one game.

At least now that Shinichi had locked eyes with the wild haired teen, the boy was openly watching him. It was far less distracting, but Shinichi still promised himself he would be finding out more about Hakuba's friends. Yes friends. If the brown haired girl sitting between Hakuba and the wild haired teen didn't look almost exactly like Ran, Shinichi might not have noticed the latter boy's attentions at all. It said something that only luck had alerted him to the potential threat.

Shinichi had actually met both of them before, though the boy's name eluded him. They had met at a Kaitou KID heist and he had seen them a few times after that. Of course at the time he was posing as pint sized detective Edogawa Conan, so Hakuba Saguru was the only one that Shinichi had ever met in his teenage form. Putting the thought aside, he focused back on the task at hand, winning the soccer game.

* * *

Kaito couldn't quite explain why, but it bothered him that an hour before his next heist, the fake 'Detective of the East' still hadn't made an appearance. Kaito had sat through the imposter's entire soccer game, but the fake couldn't be bothered to come to his heist. Of course, that might have just been Kaito deflecting blame.

His favorite little detective was also missing from the scene, Conan hadn't made an appearance for the last 3 months. It was getting to be a little unsettling… and boring. It just wasn't any fun running from people who had no chance of catching you. Not that Kaito wanted to get caught. He didn't. But he was so bored.

 _What the HELL?!_

The sensation of being watched flooded over Kaito as he blended in with the members of his task force. It took a great deal of effort not to flinch and continue to act as if he didn't feel that sharp gaze threatening to rend him to pieces. Something about this gaze was different from anything else he had felt before. It wasn't hostile or appraising, so much as challenging and curious. It was almost like Conan's gaze, but somehow more intense, more demanding.

Kaito felt adrenaline surge through his body as he casually repositioned himself to look back at his observer. It didn't matter if she was in imposter or not. Kudo-chan was on to him, her startling blue eyes catching Kaito off guard.

Shinichi felt his pulse spike and his excitement grow as his eyes met KID's. Chasing KID had always been a thrill, but now that he was back in a teen sized body, he had been sure that he would be able to catch 'the magician under the moonlight'. As a matter of fact he had spent most of the last hour disabling traps that KID had placed. But the moment KID looked at him all of Shinichi's certainty evaporated. KID met his challenge head on with wide grin and a mischievous look in his eyes. Somehow Shinichi knew that KID had just decided to up his game.

A wink was the last thing Shinichi saw before the room was plunged into darkness. The damned thief had actually winked at him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and of course my esteemed pursuers," illuminated only by moonlight KID paused to look around the room, "let's start the show." With that a single spot light fell on the thief as he balanced atop the display case for an emerald by the name of 'Summer's Envy'. "Tonight I will present you all with a sight that would make even this lovely emerald envious." He continued with a chuckle, waving a hand at the gem beneath his feet. A snap of his fingers filled the air with metallic butterflies as multicolored lights danced across their shimmering surfaces, filling the room with color. A wink of his eye and a tip of his hat preceded his customary smoke bomb.

"Outside teams report." Inspector Nakamori demanded as he moved towards the exit assuming KID had already fled.

No one answered, which was of course the plan. KID's little butterfly friends were actually exceptionally good at disrupting radio communications. They looked harmless, but any military commander would tell you that radio and radar alike would be useless until the butterfly shaped chaff finished fluttering to the ground.

The heavy silence from the radio was all that was needed to hasten the inspector's exit. Losing contact with your ground troops could be very dangerous after all.

Kaito watched out of the corner of his eye as Kudo-chan approached the display case to find two of the task force members lying unconscious. A third man was there too, trying to wake the others. Or at least that is how it would have looked to anyone else. "KID." The imposter said with a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. Kaito just looked up at her in confusion as he propped one of the unconscious men up against the display case.

The fake was dangerously good, Kaito decided as he pretended to measure the downed task force member's pulse. As the seconds ticked by Kudo-chan shifted her weight to rest on one hip. It was the first openly feminine thing Kaito had seen her do. "Even I can pick a lock faster than that." She informed him.

"It's much harder with only one hand." Kaito replied as he moved his second hand to join the first. The lock clicked open a few seconds later.

"You should have just used two hands to begin with." The imposter commented as Kaito flipped open the display case and gingerly plucked the emerald from its cushion.

"Wouldn't it look odd to use two hands to check someone's pulse, Imposter-chan?"

A mixture of surprise and… was that anger…? Flashed through Kudo-chan's eyes before she answered. "Wouldn't it look odd to check anyone's pulse at a KID heist? After all, no one ever gets hurt at one of your heists do they?"

KID's grin grew wider before it faltered for a split second and the thief launched himself at Shinichi. Not a half a second later Shinichi saw the muzzle flash out of the corner of his eye. The bullet embedded itself in the display case where KID had just been standing.

The phantom thief's momentum carried them both out of harm's way and down to floor. "Well that's new." He muttered under his breath as he pinned Shinichi to the ground. They were relatively safe behind another display pedestal, but if there was more than one shooter they might be in someone else's crosshairs.

"Looks like they gave up on the sniper approach." Shinichi replied as he pushed KID off him. "Not that it was a very effective approach… Still this is awfully brazen isn't it?" The thief's expression was unreadable, whatever was going on in his head hidden behind his legendary grin. "KID?" Shinichi questioned as he shifted around the thief to watch their backs. He wasn't really sure which of the two the gunman was actually aiming at - he had plenty of his own enemies -, but for the time being he was willing to believe it was the thief based solely on the first bullet's trajectory.

As if echoing Shinichi's thoughts KID spoke in a low whisper. "We should split up. I can draw them up the stairs, but I need you get everyone else out of the building. Hostages aren't an option, Imposter-chan."

"I disabled most of the traps in the stairwell." Shinichi relayed, earning himself a momentary glance from the thief. "There's hardly anything left that will slow them down."

"I wasn't expecting that from you Imposter-chan." KID answered thoughtfully, the expression on his face barely changing, the picture of unwavering confidence. "What did you leave?"

"Smoke bombs, some of the smaller dye traps, and there were two trip wires that I didn't have the time to investigate."

"Not very sporting of you fiddle with a magician's setup before his show." KID answered as he shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet and prepared for a flashy dash to the door.

"Wait." The feel of Kudo-chan's fingers on Kaito's neck was startling. But that was quickly eclipsed by the realization that the fake detective had just adhered a small tracking device under the collar of his shirt. "In case you need help." She told him before a firm push sent him into the gunman's line of sight.

"Tsk. Tsk. Guns aren't allowed at my shows." Kaito announced with a bravado that he shouldn't have been able to muster while staring down the barrel of a gun. That was probably just proof that he had been spending too much time as KID. Or maybe he had been trained to flee from soccer balls more readily than guns. Yep. That had to be it. Stupid Tantei-kun.


	2. Up or Down?

**Disclaimer: I don't own DC/MK in case there was any question about that.**

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 **Chapter 2: Up or Down?**

The only answer KID received was a bullet aimed at his temple.

That was the moment that Shinichi realized they were dealing with an amateur. No experienced assassin would ever aim for KID's head. The only chance a shooter had of even hitting the phantom thief was to aim center mass. KID was just that slippery. That was why sniping had never worked. The man couldn't seem to stand still to save his life. Which was ironic, considering his inability to stand still for more than a heartbeat or two was what had kept him alive this long.

KID was halfway to the stairwell by the time the second bullet sank into the wall and the gunman moved to pursue him. There was no way this guy was going to catch KID. And both the detective and the thief knew it. Which left Shinichi with a few questions. Specifically: Who was the gunman? And what had possessed him target KID?

 _Nothing to do but ask._ Shinichi thought to himself as he watched the gunman break into a run to follow KID up the stairs. He was dressed in all black from his heavy combat boots to his ski mask, the one exception being his nice shiny belt buckle. Shinichi briefly considered using it as a target as he dispensed a soccer ball from his belt. Instead he waited for the gunman to run past him before he sent the ball careening into the man's back.

A pained sound filled the air as the gunman collapsed, the gun falling from his hand to skitter across the floor. If he was lucky, no one would notice the slightly sadistic smirk that had found its way to Shinichi's face. He clearly needed a better way to relieve stress.

The gunman's groan almost caused Kaito to miss the first stair step as he chanced a glance back at Kudo-chan. It really shouldn't have surprised him to see the gunman laying prone at her feet, he had already observed that she was dangerous with a soccer ball… But where the heck had she gotten one? Did she have a soccer ball dispenser like Tantei-kun's? That couldn't be good. If someone was mass producing those things… Nope. He really didn't want to think about it. Instead he focused on getting up the stairs and onto the rooftop.

It wasn't that Kaito didn't trust Kudo-chan to handle the gunman… She had clearly done that already. It was more a matter of what she would do after she took down the gunman. If it had been Edogawa Conan or the real Kudo Shinichi, Kaito wouldn't have worried about it. They (Or would that be He?) only came to KID's heists for the thrill of the chase. As long as KID did no harm and returned what he stole they would let him go. Maybe even facilitate his escape. But Imposter-chan… Imposter-chan was an unknown entity.

Avoiding the last of his tripwires, Kaito pushed open the door to roof. He paused for a moment, listening, half expecting to hear the footsteps of the fake detective rushing after him. She hadn't been kidding about disabling most of his traps. It was odd though. He really would have expected her to disable all of them. She had said that she ran out of time to deal with two of his more immobilizing traps, but the others she had left intentionally.

Deciding to consider that at a later time Kaito reached into his breast pocket to retrieve 'Summer's Envy'. It gleamed in the moonlight as he raised it into the sky, but it wasn't the gem he was looking for. Pandora had eluded him once again. Still, finding Pandora was a numbers game and with Kaito's luck he was bound to win eventually.

Kaito pocketed the gem again and started to move towards the edge of the building. It was probably about time for him to take his leave anyhow. That was when he finally heard footsteps on the stairs. Kudo-chan was clearly running. "Sni-" was all Kaito heard her yell before a large caliber bullet grazed the front of his suit.

It was as if time slowed down… Actually Kaito wished it was as if time slowed down. In reality, time moved as it always had while he bolted for the door. No one had tried to shoot him out of the sky for 7 heists in a row and he had sort of forgotten about his less friendly critics. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part that they had forgotten about him.

Truthfully, it always kind of amazed Kaito to reflect on the ideas that popped into his head while being shot at. Whenever bullets started flying his body seemed to just move on its own, instinct taking over while his mind raced. He was through the door and halfway to the first landing before he registered the rest of Kudo-chan's words, "Sinpers! Get inside!"

She knew. Somehow she knew that there were snipers lying in wait for him. And she had warned him about them… But only once he was already on the roof… That put her firmly in one of three categories: well informed friend, cleverly disguised foe, or actually Tantei-kun disguised as a woman disguising herself as Tantei-kun. That was all that Kaito managed to figure out before Kudo-chan's fingers wrapped around his bicep.

KID's arm was thicker than Shinichi expected it to be, or maybe his new hands were just too small. Either way, Shinichi would have lost in a battle of brawn, making it very fortunate for KID that he had been at a dead run when Shinichi grabbed him. The thief's feet had barely touched the ground as he attempted to turn the corner to the next flight of stairs. It gave Shinichi just enough leverage to redirect KID's momentum. He forced them both flush to the wall running parallel with the stairs just before three bullets ripped straight through the adjacent wall. They flew straight down KID's anticipated path and exited through another wall half a story lower.

Shinichi watched out of the corner of his eye, his heart hammering in his chest as he calculated his next move. Whoever was out to kill KID had decided to stop playing around. It hadn't occurred to Shinichi before, but if KID's pursuers were part of the black organization… Well he had only managed to take out about _most_ of the organization. Some of them were still out there, including several very skilled assassins.

He shook his head as if to physically clear the thought from his mind. It hardly mattered at the moment. What mattered was a single and potentially very deadly choice. Did they go up or down? Up a flight of stairs and into the night with at least 2 confirmed snipers? Or down to blend in with KID's fans? It really wasn't a choice. They couldn't endanger anyone else. "Up." The detective announced at the same moment the thief spun out of his grasp and zigzagged up the stairs to emerge on the roof top once more.

"Damn." Shinichi heard himself curse as he moved to follow. A few weeks of being a full sized teen again and he was already finding downsides. For example, he made a much better target now. At least he assumed that was what the searing pain coming from his shoulder meant. It was probably just a graze. Not that it mattered. They needed to leave. They needed to leave NOW!

"Siss… Un… uh… uh"

Kaito hadn't really expected Kudo-chan to follow him back onto the roof top, only Tantei-kun was that reckless. So it was a bit of a shook to hear her pained hiss from the far side of the roof. It was more of a shook to see her stumble to the edge of the roof and throw herself over the railing. Kaito's brain stalled as his body took action.

 _Did she just jump on purpose?!_

If the building had been only a couple of stories shorter instead of its impressive 32 floors, Imposter-chan would have gone splat on the pavement. Instead of spreading her body to increase air resistance and slow her fall, the crazy woman had tucked her limbs in tight and dove head first towards the street until she reached the 10th floor. Kaito had his arms wrapped protectively around her by the 6th floor and his hang glider out by the 5th, which was just not enough time… They crashed to the ground less than four blocks from the sky scraper.

Kudo-chan was already moving down the street by the time Kaito untangled himself from his now busted hang glider. Considering the gunman and snipers had been after him, it didn't quite make sense that the imposter seemed to be the one making the escape plans. Kaito really didn't know what it was anymore, but something about the woman was just… wrong. Well besides having obviously been shot… Or maybe it really was just having been shot…? Somehow he doubted it.

"You coming?" Kudo-chan asked as she looked back over her shoulder.

The eyes that meet Kaito's should have been glazed over in pain, dulled from exhaustion, or filled with the same fear Kaito could feel coursing through his veins. Instead KID's poker face was met with startling blue eyes that burned with purpose. Kaito's words left his mouth before his brain had quite caught up. "You jumped off the roof."

"Because I knew you would catch me." Kudo-chan answered as she turned back around. Kaito might have imagined it, but it sounded like she said something else afterwards, her words just above a whisper. "Stupid thief."

It was really… Strange. It felt like the first time he had worked with Tantei-kun. They didn't really trust each other, but they… trusted that they would each keep the other alive. It wasn't a bond Kaito ever expected to replicate, but there it was, growing between him and the fake Kudo Shinichi.

They made it four more blocks before Kudo-chan lost her balance and staggered into a wall. Even if her eyes were still burning with determination, her pallor was getting worse and Kaito was beginning to wonder if she was actually Ok. She had brushed off his concerns, but the beads of sweat forming on her brow were beginning to make the thief worried. "Imposter-chan." He called out when she didn't move away from the wall, her body slowly sagging. "Imposter-chan!"

Her eyes were screwed shut, in what Kaito could only assume was pain, as she let him lower her to the ground. All in all, Kudo-chan looked terrible, but it didn't make her an easy patient to tend to. Even as her breath left her in labored pants, she complained about stopping to rest, urging them forward. After her protests finally died out - likely due to lack of air, not lack of conviction - nimble fingers found the edges of her clothes and set to work exposing her shoulder wound. It wasn't pretty by any means but the bullet had just grazed the surface of her skin. Kaito had no doubt that it hurt, but it shouldn't have been this bad.

He stepped away from the fake detective to look her over once again, searching for whatever wound he had missed. There was some light bruising on her right ankle, which probably hadn't made walking easy, but again it was a minor injury. More importantly, the difficulty Kudo-chan was having breathing bothered Kaito. The rise and fall of her chest wasn't nearly as rhythmic as it should have been. Almost as if something was constricting her…

Oh. Oh! That would make sense. Kaito had only worn a corset a couple of times - out of absolute necessity of course - but he still clearly remembered the shortness of breath that came from donning the rib crushing, chest compressing, medieval torture device. And either Kudo-chan was flat as a board to begin with… Or making herself look male couldn't be comfortable. Kaito was betting the fake detective had some curves hidden under her clothes.

Theoretically, that wasn't an issue. A poof of smoke, a quick change, and Kudo-chan should be breathing normally again in no time. There were two problems with the theory. First, KID was a gentleman. He would dress as a woman, but disrobing one just didn't sit right with him. Second, it didn't matter that Kaito put Kudo-chan's health above KID's gentleman's status, because for the life of him he could not figure out how the woman had managed to wrap herself so tightly in ACE bandages in the first place.

Three smoke bombs later and he had at least managed to disguise himself and put Kudo-chan in a lovely pink sundress. He had been saving it for the blonde idiot, but it looked better on Imposter-chan anyways. _Although,_ Kaito's inner fashionista informed him, _Blue would be a much better color for her._ With that important issue sorted out, he made a mental note to pick up something for him to change her into at his next heist. Several different, yet equally entertaining, outfit ideas came to mind as he carried her three blocks north to the nearest love hotel.

It wasn't _ideal,_ but there really was something to be said for the oh-so-discrete hourly hotels scattered around Tokyo. For one, no one questioned Kaito about his intentions when he walked in with a barely conscious woman wrapped in his arms. Although, that might have been because this particular hotel had elected to forgo having any front desk attendants; allowing Kaito to pick a room, pay for the next 10 hours in cash, and get his room key all from the not at all judgmental vending machine.

The room was sparsely furnished with no windows at all, but it was probably clean enough to do surgery in if absolutely necessary. Not that Kaito was planning to do any real surgery, but it was starting to look like he was going to have to cut Kudo-chan out of her too tight torso bindings. It was also, probably going to take some time with the miniature sewing scissors that Kaito had on hand. He turned on the news in the background as he set to work.

It wasn't until an hour later that a thoroughly self-scandalized phantom thief managed to pull the last of the sports bandages off of Kudo-chan's chest. (It was hard being a gentleman with teenage hormones and a half naked woman in the room. Even if he was doing his best not to look...) During that time he learned a few interesting things about the fake detective: she trusted him (not that Kaito had any idea why); she had multiple gunshot wounds of varying age (which was concerning); she looked enough like the real Kudo that she could pass as him without a mask; she realized he had taken her to a love hotel and approved of the choice (which seemed odd for a teenage girl); and she had no sense of modesty at all. At first, Kaito figured that last point was because she was slightly delirious from lack of oxygen. However, that idea flew right out the window when after he was finished, she thanked him for his help, asked when the room was paid up till, muttered something about hating to sleep in clothes, stripped down to nothing but her boxers, motioned to the empty side of the bed expectantly, and told Kaito he should get some sleep too.

At that point there was only one thing certain in Kaito's mind. That he would think about everything tomorrow.

* * *

 **A/N: This can go one of two ways… the sweetly awkward "Oh that's right I'm a girl now" T rated way (that I originally planed) or the M rated way (that occurred to me while editing this chapter). Any preferences?**

 **Also, how Shinichi knew about the snipers will be explained next time. It was supposed to be part of this chapter, but it just didn't flow correctly.**


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